The fourth international conference of the Nobel Women’s Initiative brings together women peace activists, policy makers and scholars from around the world. openDemocracy 50.50 has been exploring the major themes of these biennial gatherings since 2007 in articles written by laureates, participants and openDemocracy 50.50's team. Read articles by participants addressing this year's theme. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie reported daily for openDemocracy.

‘How can we get peace and democracy when we still have domestic wars and when
everyday people are dying?’ Jessica Nhkum spoke to Jennifer Allsopp at the Nobel
Women's Initiative conference in Belfast about the importance of
documenting human rights violations, injustices and inequality on the ground in
Burma

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee was recently invited to Tripoli to
deliver a speech on the role of women in transforming conflict and leading
reconciliation in Libya. When she saw who was in the audience, she changed her
prepared speech...

Patriarchy, militarism and neoliberalism have created a
matrix in which women and women’s rights can never flourish because none of
them place human values and human dignity at their core. Heather McRobie reflects on the conversations at the Nobel Women's Initiative conference in Belfast.

'What they call
transnational development companies. For us they represent death and
destruction’, yet when it comes to the pursuit of justice through law, too often
activists are on the wrong side. Jennifer Allsopp reports from Belfast at the Nobel Women’s Initiative Conference.

Speaking at the
Nobel Women’s Initiative conference, Valerie Hudson argues that best predictor
of a state’s peacefulness is how well its women are treated. Little analysed in international relations
theory, state security and women’s security are inextricably linked.

It is not that ‘masculinity’ generates
war, as the question has been put, but rather that the process of
militarization both draws on and exaggerates the bipolarization of gender
identities in extremis, says Amina Mama

The lack of institutional concern for epidemic levels of
sexual harassment and assault in Egypt is part of the larger neglect of the
issue of gender equality by the post-revolutionary powers, says Heather McRobie.

"If
we live violence every day, how can we work for the development of our country
so that we can benefit from human rights like other countries and like other
women?" - Julienne Lusenge speaking about her work as a women's human
rights defender in the DRC

The culture of
war is like a mangrove that takes root in our everyday lives and institutions
occupying a dominant position in the field of cultural reproduction. Jennifer
Allsopp reports from the Nobel
Women’s Initiative conference on
the nonviolent tactics, syllabuses, movements and strategies in place to
build a culture of peace.

When did a
political formation in theory designed to preserve our common good become a
machinery of war? Or does the nation-state depend on militarism for its very
existence? Jennifer Allsopp writes from the Nobel Women’s Initiative conference in Belfast.

The
physical and moral suffering undergone by the valiant people of Casamance is
incalculable and, as usual, it is the women and children who pay the highest
price. From their position as victims, women have decided to become committed
agents of peace, says Ndeye
Marie Thiam.

Democracy is more of a culture than a way of
governing or a political system. It is a historical process that must go
through its evolution. No country can be a quasi democracy. It is in fact
democratic people that make a society democratic, says Nobel Peace laureate
Shirin Ebadi

Haitian women who are living and organising in the displacement camps, together
with international partners, have produced an essential blueprint for
addressing rape. If adopted by the Haitian Parliament as revisions to the Haitian
legal code,
this would be a major advancement in legislation addressing gender-based violence
and discrimination, says Yifat Susskind.

Sixty years after Britain’s first atomic weapons test, we need to consider the
parallels between how the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was achieved in the
1990s and today’s nuclear challenges. The British government is, yet again, unable to read the writing on the wall, says Rebecca Johnson

In January 1968, young feminist
antiwar activists in the U.S temporarily broke with a long tradition of protesting war as
mothers. At an all-women’s protest against the Vietnam War, they symbolically
buried “Traditional Womanhood” and claimed the right to protest as independent
citizens. Does it matter what language
women use to protest war ?

After serving in the US Army, and later as a diplomat, Colonel Ann Wright resigned her position in opposition to the US invasion of Iraq, 2003. She explains her opposition to the use of drones, and why any demilitarism plan for the planet must begin with the United States

In order
to vote for peace, we must first vote for voting systems which are 'peace-ful'.
Peter Emerson argues for consensus voting which allows for differences but
mutual respect, is inclusive, accurate, and very democratic

The social fabric of a group is woven, in
the first place, by the efforts of women. After war, the surest way to
rebuild society is to protect and empower those who will re-weave the torn
social fabric if given half a chance to do so: the women.

What
unites people's movements from the Arab 'spring' to Occupy, is a new consciousness
that a good life, with dignity, freedom, fairness and human security, is their
right - and by the law of love and
logic, the right of every man and woman, says laureate Mairead Maguire.

If we want to ensure that humanity is not doomed to repeat its bloodiest
century, the logical move would be to mount an international campaign to see
that competent women are swiftly accepted into policy-making positions in all
conflict countries, says Scilla Elworthy

Turkey’s agenda for peace aims to overcome the decades-old Kurdish
question and raise democratic standards. While welcoming this initiative, Yakin Ertürk questions whether the end of conflict will bring peace to
women if gender equality issues are not adequately addressed

Last week saw the
lifting of the ban on women in combat in the US military. How will this change the dynamics within and
perceptions of the American military, and will it help reduce the current
epidemic levels of sexual harassment and sexual assault within the armed
forces?

Putting episodes
of post-Arab spring violence against women down to a routine manifestation of
patriarchy and its allied misogyny in the societies concerned may unwittingly
shield power-holders from more searching scrutiny. What is at stake is no longer just women and their
bodies but the body politic itself.

For too long the absence of men and boys, as well as the missing
component of youth ingenuity and passion, has been an impediment to lasting
progress in achieving gender equality and the prevention of violence against
women and girls, says
Jimmie Briggs.

Women led many of the protests, and were vital in the
sustainability of the movement during the Yemeni revolution, but as
preparations for the national dialogue to be held under the transitional
unity government go ahead, many women fear that the rival political parties will only
unite around one matter: excluding women’s issues.

The to-ing and fro-ing about ‘women’s peaceful natures’ is no more than an excitable bubble of argument out of touch with facts on the ground. Antiwar feminism is a pretty holistic feminism that is forged in the crucible of war.

Whether one considers the direct effects of military rule and conflict on women, or the global economic implications of the US war-on-terror, militarism threatens to strip away all the 20th century gains in women’s rights, dispossessing us once more. African women must take a stand, says Amina Mama

The
incursion of the military into the British education system will mean that
alternatives to war and peaceful ways of resolving conflict will be more
difficult for young people to explore. In the long term we will all pay a heavy
price, says Emma Sangster.

The involvement of women in anti-war actions and in support
of peace activism worldwide is a critical part of modern history, yet the
vulnerability of women in conflict situations to violence of all forms is
perhaps the most brutal manifestation of patriarchy in modern times. We
must probe the areas of ambivalence in women’s activism for peace and human
rights, argues Sunila Abeysekera

Why isn’t anybody doing anything? Attempting to curb sexual harassment by targeting the harassers is
very challenging in Egypt since the driving forces are complex and
compounded. We need to focus on the
bystander, says Eba’a El-Tamami.

There is growing
recognition by the international community that women human rights defenders
are best placed to respond to violence against women and a crucial force for
peace; but the international protection
framework needs to be made more accessible to those in need.

In a reply to Meredith Tax, Pam
Bailey argues that 'citizen diplomacy' protesting
the use of drones is essential in order to better understand the impact of U.S.
foreign policy, both abroad and in the U.S.

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